8 Ways To Get Your Job Done And Still Enjoy Your Day

“How do you do it? You’ve got school, friends, (girls?) + this huge business thingy. How do you do it?”

Before I start blabbing about the “ceremonies” and “chants” that I do that help me handle all those stuff, I’d like to tell you upfront that…

I AM THE WORST TIME MANAGER EVER.

Goofyness aside, I am. I am always late at almost all stuff + I keep forgetting things (Heck, there was once a time that I asked my dad where my iPhone was and it was just in my hands!)

Here’s The Secret…

That was kinda cheesy, but here’s how I do it…

(Some are from personal experience and some are those stuff that really, has worked from the start.)

1. Get Into A “Spell”

This is probably the hardest part to do for me back then. Sounds very simple, but very hard to do.

The thing is, you should get “in” to a spell – or a “work trance”. When you’re in that spell, you can do almost anything, even if it’s the most boring task, when you’re in a spell, it’ll be hard to stop you.

Now here’s a little technique I do to get in to that spell…

What I’ll do is I’d start my day with a very easy task. A task that I like to do – say firing up Photoshop and whipping out banners or arranging computer files (hey, I like doing it. OCD?) Then progress on complicated tasks to the most boring tasks.

Now what happens is that the easy tasks will get me in the mood so as Iprogress to the most boring tasks, I’m already in that “work trance”.

I wouldn’t recommend starting your day with emails because you’ll definitely get lost with who you are talking to. Starting your day with your daily reads isn’t a good idea for me also.

2. Daily To Do List

This is probably the most overused tactic.

But hey, this is VERY crucial – without a daily to-do list, I’d be lost and probably would wander off to Youtube after 10 minutes of work.

Making a to-do list could be one of the very easy task you can do to get into that “spell” too. Takes me around 5-10 minutes.

One of the most important things you should do is to prioritize tasks, or arrange them from easy to hard if there’s no time constraint to help you get into a spell.

By the way, I use Google Tasks on gmail.

3. Cross Out Finished Tasks

I didn’t know that little things like this would matter – but when you finish tasks, it’s important that you cross them out or make a mark or something that tells that you have successfully completed it.

This will give you a sense of accomplishment, and if you’re like me, you’d feel more relaxed.

4. CLOSE Distractions

The biggest distractions that I have are Skype, Yahoo Messenger, Email and Youtube. And one of the biggest mistakes I made to avoid these distractions is to put a status message on Skype, Yahoo and Gmail…

“Busy”

or

“Message if important only”

Now what happens there is that yes, the number of people who message me reduces BUT the “temptation” (is that the right word?) to talk to someone is still there. Heck, even to look who’s online.

So here’s what I did.. I CLOSED IT.

That also applies to websites that waste your time – Youtube, Facebook, Flickr all sorts.

But there’s always a temptation to open it again right?

Block it.

You can simply block a website by going to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc then opening “hosts” with notepad. (Note: to Vista users, open notepad first as an administrator then open the “hosts” file) then adding….

When the first song starts, I’d go ahead with my first easy task to get into that “spell” then when the 3rd song is in the half way, I’d stop it and just continue working afterwards – this really gets me in the mood.

I don’t know, maybe the first 2 songs gets me to that “spell” then stopping at the 3rd song helps me concentrate to the tasks instead of the song.

6. Take Notes, Don’t Act Right Away

Yes, they say that without action, you won’t get anything.

But, with action PLUS the right timing, you’ll get everywhere.

So when you’re in the middle of a task and an idea or an additional task pops out of your brain – right it down and get to it later on after you finish what you’re currently doing.

7. NO!

Learn to say no.

There are stuff that won’t really benefit you that much, learn to say no to interviews, to meetups, to speaking engagements.

Of course, you wouldn’t want to say it with an all caps “NO!” but you don’t want to beat around the bush as well. Be frank, but polite.

Me too. I’m not really good at time management. Glad I found your post. It inspired me in someway to get myself organized. By the way, the technical term for that A spell that Carl is talking about is flow. It was coined by one Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi. I suggest people to explore that concept too.

It is relieving when you see some crossed out task on your to do list. You will appreciate your used time once you have task completed and won’t be disappointed for the passed hours.

I do say YES for #6, don’t get too excited when an interesting idea pops into your mind out of nowhere. It’s a form of distraction especially if it’s not relevant to what you are working presently, might as well right it down and just deal with it after. You shouldn’t lose focus to what you are currently doing because you might loose your gear and end up with numbers of unfinished task. It’s a good habit to finish what you have started at a short possible time.

Great post. To simplify it all in all I just prioritize what’s important from whats not. The problem with the mindset though, is that I tend to think (at some point) that doing useless stuffs should be a high priority when in fact its not..

This are my problems nowadays, I am easily distracted. I am working as an internet researcher, virtual assistant and part time blogger. There are a lot of things to do, sometimes 24 hours isn’t enough. I usually spend the whole day with my laptops and desktop.

YouTubes and sites useful for my blog ranking distracts me from doing the administrative tasks assigned for the day.

I totally agree with your suggestions.

I also delegated other tasks which I cannot fully handle because of time constraint.

As an internet marketer, staying productive at all times is the hardest thing to do. And I agree with you that the biggest distractions came from emails, online chats, etc… But most internet marketers nowadays are being too pre-occupied with just that. They thought that reading emails, they build their business. Yes it will. But that’s not proper time management.

A marketer should focus more on things that will actually make them money. As a general rule, you should focus 60% of your time on getting traffic, 30% on increasing your conversion, and 10% for customer management.

Hi Carl. Interesting to see how trances work for you. I guess what is distraction for some may be a productivity tool for another. Finding a routine that works for you can get your system in automated mode. I find it also worthy calibrating it regularly (weekly or bi-weekly) to see how it can be improved further while still enjoying it.

I start my day with a “happy” music. It makes me more energetic and full of life. When laziness catches me, I stop for awhile and give myself a rest (Sound trip) After a couple of minutes, I’m back to my working routine. ^-^

I use a count-down timer. I break my tasks for the day into chunks and put a time limit to them. I then set the timer for the amount given to the first task. When the timer is up, I take a 15 minute break. This is also a great way to learn how long it really takes to get certain tasks done. -Norene

For me one of the things that work best is to have a quite time before I start working. Pray, reflect, and remove all the worries and just relax. This gets me in a real good mood after and ready to conquer the day.

Hi Carl,
I guess most of the points you have covered & few others by commentators. However, I find this fundamental point is essential to mention is that Plan ahead in Google tasks & time it at lessor time that you normally take. That would urge you to perform better even at smallest of tasks & keep you in improving & changing mode. I am sure, doing it consistently would help.